Star Wars Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology turns 30!

[Tallguy 4,417]

There are a lot of nerdy things that I can go on about at length. This is certainly one of them.

 

I don't remember what the magazine was where I saw an ad for this box. Starlog? The Star Wars fan club? It was NOT a prominent ad. But... What the hell was this? The description was... Vague? I wish I still had a copy of it. There had to be something that made me drop everything I was doing (probably not much) and drive to the music store. ( @Yavar Moradi do you remember Hastings in Prescott?) And they had it. I remember my jaw dropping and staying there when I read the contents. Final Duel. Everything from the 2 LP Empire. The second Cantina song.

 

It's still the prettiest collection I own, IMHO. The Blue Box and the Star Trek TOS box come close. I think it's the larger format book that puts it over the top. The notes are wonderful. And you can't go wrong with Star Wars OT pictures and art. I still love the black disc covers with the nearly black logos on them. And the three discs with McQuarrie art and the fourth with Williams. It's sitting to my immediate right, next to the Blue Box.

 

I know we have a bunch of old timers like me around here. You understand. You probably have your own memories about this box. Do share!

 

For you youngsters: You have no idea. Not just in terms of Star Wars, but even in terms of expansions like this just weren't done back then. This might not have been the first but it had to have been close. We kind of take it for granted that if we just hold out long enough that eventually one of the THREE or FOUR specialty labels will crack the arrangements and we'll get Star Trek, or Harry Potter, or even something like Lord of the Rings that comes out expanded / complete almost out of the gate.

 

I love the SE disks. And I still listen to the original LP programs regularly. But I can't think of any soundtrack release (yes, even including the Star Trek discs) that had the emotional high that this box did. It still kind of does!

 

Thirty years. Amazing. A long time ago....

[Jay 39,429]

Wow. This was my first soundtrack purchase ever! I got it in 1994, so I guess I've been collecting film scores for about two thirds of my life now. That's crazy.

 

And yes, compared to the amazing expansions we have today, certain aspects of this fall short in comparison. But in the era it came out? It was incredible! Just absolutely nothing like it 

 

I'll try to write more at some point.

[Yavar Moradi 2,990]

6 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

( @Yavar Moradi do you remember Hastings in Prescott?)

I do! And I think I remember meeting up with a fellow film music fan there once — you?

 

Yavar

[Tallguy 4,417]

7 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

I do! And I think I remember meeting up with a fellow film music fan there once — you?

 

Yavar

 

Sadly not. I'm sorry my story can't be that cool.

 

You know, I never realized until just now: This would have been the last CD I bought from Hastings because I moved right after. That's where I bought Always and Batman Returns among a TON of other CDs / cassettes.

[Mr. Hooper 3,406]

I maybe saw the ad for the anthology in the Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine, which my brother was subscribed to, or leafing through a movie mag at a store. I can still picture it.

 

When I got my hands on the set, I was never so excited to see an asterisk, or two, next to a cue name...

 

*previously unreleased

**contains previously unreleased material

 

...of which "Final Duel" was the grail. I remember the notes saying something like: "And then comes the cue most requested by fans over the years."

 

I'll have to take that handsome box out of storage and give the discs a spin on the ol' CD player to celebrate the anniversary...

[Erik Woods 611]

I documented my experience with the Star Wars Anthology and DCC's Radiers of the Lost Ark in this blog post I wrote back in 2010. 

 

http://www.cinematicsound.net/film-scores-i-was-excited-to-buy/

 

-Erik-

[Laserschwert 518]

My story isn't nearly as heartfelt, as I just got it off eBay in the mid-2000s to add to my collection. If memory serves right, I got it for a meager 25 bucks or so. My actual first purchased SW album was the first Special Edition soundtrack (I vividly remember spotting the digipak version at our local electronics market - plus eagerly hunting down the other two in the coming months (which I, unfortunately, only got in their jewel case form).

[1977 1,746]

I remember seeing to my utter surprise and elation the listing for this in the Movie Boulevard soundtracks mail-order catalogue in 1994.

 

Shortly thereafter I was browsing through some magazines at the local newsagent and I came across an ad in an issue of Premiere magazine. I promptly bought the mag and proceeded to try to scrutinise the tiny print on the photo to make out which tracks were previously unreleased.

 

I still have a clipping of the ad safely stored within my Anthology box, which I of course ordered promptly on hearing of its release. What a fantastic set this was at the time, and virtually unprecedented if I recall correctly.

[Mr. Hooper 3,406]

33 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

Shortly thereafter I was browsing through some magazines at the local newsagent and I came across an ad in an issue of Premiere magazine.

Ah yes, it must've been in 'Premiere' that I saw it too. One of the magazines I'd often peruse and not buy.

[Davis 2,895]

1 hour ago, Laserschwert said:

My story isn't nearly as heartfelt, as I just got it off eBay in the mid-2000s to add to my collection.

I got it off eBay in 2022. 😊

I somehow didn’t know about it when it came out. It was before the internet, mind you.
It really is an essential set for a JW and Star Wars fan. I hope that if we’ll ever get a remastered complete OT set, it will be made in a similar fashion. 

[GerateWohl 5,040]

I won't bore you again with the story how I lost and regained the Return of the Jedi disk of that box.

And I don't remember where and how I bought it. Must have been around the time it came out.

Still I would say, these disks have the best single disk program for each movie. Even though the Mynock Cave Escape is painfully missing in the TESB program.

And, what I especially like, it has a version of the main title without the end titles extension on the bonus disk.

[Davis 2,895]

1 hour ago, Laserschwert said:

My actual first purchased SW album was the first Special Edition soundtrack (I vividly remember spotting the digipak version at our local electronics market - plus eagerly hunting down the other two in the coming months (which I, unfortunately, only got in their jewel case form).

I got Empire and Jedi in 1997 on my vacation in Paris, from the Virgin Megastore. And for some idiotic reason I didn’t get STAR WARS as a digipack, although I had it in my hands! (maybe my Dad only allowed me to get two sets and I had to choose which one to leave and I thought that since I had seen Empire and Jedi the most times, I would pick those, I don’t remember).
I bought it in the jewel case version some time later. And then a year ago I finally got the digipack off eBay. 

[GerateWohl 5,040]

5 minutes ago, JTW said:

It really is an essential set for a JW and Star Wars fan.

Only until we get the ultimate remastered 23-disk complete box of all three trilogies... in aproximately 54 years for the 100th anniversary of Star Wars. 

But when I see, that the uncomplete 5-disk Indy set costs already $150 it is fair to assume that I will have to decide if I burn my house or kill myself or both, to be able to pay it from the insurance money.

[Davis 2,895]

1 minute ago, GerateWohl said:

in aproximately 54 years for the 100th anniversary of Star Wars. 

Johnny Williams will be 145 years young preparing for his 54th return to Vienna.

[GerateWohl 5,040]

1 minute ago, JTW said:

Johnny Williams will be 145 years young preparing for his 54th return to Vienna.

I have no doubt about it.

[Davis 2,895]

7 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Only until we get the ultimate remastered 23-disk complete box of all three trilogies...

For a friendly price of $1499.99 

[1977 1,746]

21 minutes ago, JTW said:

I got Empire and Jedi in 1997 on my vacation in Paris, from the Virgin Megastore. And for some idiotic reason I didn’t get STAR WARS as a digipack, although I had it in my hands!

I bought it in the jewel case version some time later. And then a year ago I finally got the digipack off eBay. 

 

That reminds me, I still need to check my SE digipaks to see whether the discs have gone rotten (apparently a thing caused by the glue used in the cardboard packaging). Fortunately I also have the jewel case versions.

[Davis 2,895]

Just now, JTWfan77 said:

 

That reminds me, I still need to check my SE digipaks to see whether the discs have gone rotten (apparently a thing caused by the glue used in the cardboard packaging). Fortunately I also have the jewel case versions.

That happened to my sets! The surface of the discs had some sort of white substance on them after a while, so I stopped playing them and played the jewel case versions instead. It was caused by the glue, you say? Wow!

[1977 1,746]

Yeah I read that on FSM I think. I literally have not looked at mine for more than a decade but I should.

[Davis 2,895]

1 minute ago, JTWfan77 said:

Yeah I read that on FSM I think. I literally have not looked at mine for more than a decade but I should.

This reminds me that the same thing happened to the discs of The Phantom Menace Ultimate Edition. I had to buy another set and those discs are fine. 

[1977 1,746]

I need to check those too then! Bloody digipaks. 

 

I fortunately have a spare set of the TPM UE discs.

[Thor 8,353]

This is a set that comes up in conversations with regular intervals, most recently in the "Now Playing (Older Scores)" thread this November. Since I've told my story several times before in these conversations, I decided to just go back to that last one and more or less copy/paste what I wrote there:

 

"My first encounter with the Anthology box was at the FNAC music store in Paris in 1995, much to my wide-eyed surprise. I was on a school trip to France at the time. I couldn't afford it then, but a year later I ordered it from a mail order catalogue back in Norway. This was last year in high school, I went down to the post office during lunch recess, picked it up and opened it by the lockers with a friend of mine. It was a great 'un-boxing' session, except for the fact that the booklet glue had gone bad and the pages fell apart at the seams. I remember being surprised to see Lukas Kendall writing the liner notes. I had just started subscribing to FSM a year earlier and was familiar with his name through that. To this day, it's still the only-ever release I need of the original trilogy STAR WARS scores (I had all the 2CD "book" RCA sets at one point, but sold or traded them subsequently)."

[Schilkeman 1,330]

Still the best sounding release of the OT scores. In 1993, I was 9, and I didn't know anything about soundtracks, music, Star Wars, or John Williams. My first exposure to the soundtracks was the SE release, a set which took me 2 years to complete (those things were expensive for a poor kid in Indiana). I bought the Anthology off eBay a couple of years ago, and listen to it regularly. 

[Davis 2,895]

47 minutes ago, Thor said:

To this day, it's still the only-ever release I need of the original trilogy STAR WARS scores

The only good Star Wars score is the complete SW score. The more the merrier. Every note JW ever wrote for his masterpieces needs to be released in the best possible quality, owned, listened to and studied. 

[scoreman36 89]

Goodness me, 30 years! I bought mine on the day of release from Tower Records on Picadilly Circus (long since gone). I’d never spent so much on CDs before, it felt crazy. But I felt like I was in some exclusive club of owning something truly special. And the ‘black on black’ artwork - ridiculous but also brilliant because that’s what you get when you’re in the exclusive club! And a couple of years later when I finally got to see JW live, it was this set that I asked him to sign for me. 

[Davis 2,895]

4 minutes ago, scoreman36 said:

And a couple of years later when I finally got to see JW live, it was this set that I asked him to sign for me. 

Would you care to show a photo of it? I’m sure others would be happy to see it. Thanks!

[scoreman36 89]

Sure. Last day of work today before my Christmas break. I’ve got a nice bottle of port that I’m going to crack open tomorrow and then listen to this set in honour of 30yrs of JW collecting. I’ll post a pic at the same time. 

[HanFiredFirst 70]

This was perhaps the best present my sister ever bought me - she'd seen it when she was working in the US and bought me the box for Christmas. It blew me away and continues to do so - always a physical copy guy, I've curated the playlist to my own tastes and burned them as playback CDs - the sound is just spectacular. 30 years - wow.

[Jay 39,429]

17 hours ago, JTW said:

I somehow didn’t know about it when it came out. It was before the internet, mind you.

 

No, it wasn't! I learned about the existence of this set through the internet! It was before broadband, websites and forums, but it was not before dial up and usenet!

[Davis 2,895]

11 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

No, it wasn't! I learned about the existence of this set through the internet! It was before websites and forums, but it was not before Usenet!

It was here in Hungary. Only a handful of people had internet connection in their home before 1995. I certainly didn’t.

[Jay 39,429]

I would have learned about this by reading this post by @Lukas Kendall in rec.arts.sf.starwars in 1993:

 

From: ldke...@unix.amherst.edu (Lukas Kendall)
Organization: Amherst College, Amherst MA, USA

Item: Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology

 

Label and # is: Fox 07822-11012-2.

 

General description: 4 CDs of music from the original soundtracks to all
three films, including around an hour and a half of previously unreleased
music. Will come in long-box sized packaging with removable lid--inside are
four jewel boxes plus a long-box sized full color 64 page booklet. Booklet
features an essay by director Nick Meyer, detailed track by track liner
notes, and numerous color plates of stills and production paintings sent by
Lucasfilm which have never been seen before.

 

How the hell I know all this: Lucky me has talked with Fox producer Nick
Redman about the project from the start, so I'm doing the track-by-track
liner notes.

 

Retail cost: $49.95

 

There will not be a cassette release.

 

Here's what to expect:

 

Disc 1: The original 2LP set to Star Wars on one disc, resequenced in
more of a chronological order than before, and minus "Cantina Band" which
wouldn't fit. (Don't panic about "Cantina Band"--read on.) This has been
remastered from the film mix, and the sound is fantastic.

 

Disc 2: The original 2LP set to Empire, also resequenced in chronological
order, minus "Departure of Boba Fett." This is actually being re-mixed from
the original sessions as I write this, and some things which were edited
out from the original release (a few bars here, 30 seconds there) will
hopefully be restored.

 

Disc 3: The original single LP to Jedi, plus 30-35 minutes of additional,
previously unreleased material. Let's see, that includes: Luke's battle with
the Rancor, the Emperor's arrival at the Death Star, the death of Yoda,
the first Ewok battle and fight with the Tie Fighters, the choral music when
Luke flips out and cuts off Vader's hand (at last!), Darth Vader's Death,
and "Through the Flames," when Lando blows up the Death Star. Oh, and I'm happy
to report that Lapti Nek has been relocated to disc four, speaking of which...

 

Disc 4: As if the first three discs weren't enough, disc four contains another
75 minutes of music from all three films, including "Cantina Band," "Departure
of Boba Fett," and "Lapti Nek."

 

Here are the track listings. Will notate any changes from original album
track in brackets.

 

Disc One: Star Wars***********************************************************
1) Fox Fanfare
2) Main Title
3) Imperial Attack [30 seconds longer--restored music]
4) The Desert/The Robot Auction
5) The Little People Work
6) The Princess Appears
7) The Land of the Sand People
8) The Return Home
9) Inner City [also 30 seconds longer--restored music]
10) Mouse Robot/Blasting Away
11) Rescue of the Princess
12) The Walls Converge
13) Ben's Death/TIE fighter Attack
14) Pricess Leia's Theme
15) The Last Battle
16) The Throne Room/End Title

 

Disc Two: The Empire Strikes Back*********************************************
1) Fox Fanfare
2) Main Title/The Imperial Probe (extended version) [Instead of the cave music,
which will appear on disc five next year, this continues with previously
unreleased music for the opening Hoth scenes--when Han and Leia bicker, etc]
3) Luke's Escape [including music edited out of old album (approx. 30 seconds)]
4) Luke's Rescue [previously first part of "Rebels at Bay"]
5) The Imperial March
6) The Battle in the Snow
7) Luke's First Crash [previously second part of "Rebels at Bay" (with
approx. 30 seconds restored)]
8) The Rebels Escape Again [previously second part of "Heroics of Luke & Han"]
9) The Asteroid Field
10) Yoda's Theme
11) Han Solo and the Princess
12) The Training of a Jedi Knight
13) The Magic Tree
14) Yoda and the Force
15) City in the Clouds [with 30 seconds restored]
16) Lando's Palace
17) The Duel
18) Hyperspace
19) Finale/End Credits

 

Disc Three: Return of the Jedi**********************************************
1) Fox Fanfare
2) Main Title/Approaching the Death Star
3) Han Solo Returns [at the Court of Jabba the Hutt]
4) Fight in the Dungeon *
5) The Return of the Jedi
6) The Emperor Arrives *
7) The Death of Yoda *
8) Parade of the Ewoks
9) Luke and Leia
10) The Emperor Confronts Luke *
11) Into the Trap
12) First Ewok Battle/Fight with the Fighters *
13) The Forest Battle
14) Final Duel/Into the Death Star *
15) The Emperor's Death [previously titled "The Emperor"]
16) Darth Vader's Death *
17) Through the Flames *
18) Leia Breaks the News/Funeral Pyre for a Jedi [prev title "Rebel Briefing"]
19) Ewok Celebration/End Credits
* Previously Unreleased Music

 

Disc Four: The Star Wars Trilogy (Outtakes & Prev. Unreleased Music)**********
1) Fox Fanfare
2) Star Wars - Main Title (alternate version) [very similar to original]
3) Heroic Ewok [Paploo steals speeder bike] and The Fleet Goes into Hyperspace
(Return of the Jedi)
4) Destruction of Alderaan (SW)
5) A Hive of Villany (SW) [Ben, Luke, and droids go to Mos Eisley]
6) Drawing the Battle Lines/Leia's Instructions (Empire) ["Good! Our first
catch of the day!"]
7) The Ewok Battle (Jedi) [actual film version of "The Forest Battle"]
8) Attack Position (Empire) [Falcon turns to attack Star Destroyer]
9) Crash Landing (Empire) [Luke lands on Dagobah, R2 swallowed by swamp
creature]
10) Cantina Band (SW)
11) Lapti Nek (Jedi)
12) Cantina Band #2 (SW) [the second song--it's pretty groovy!]
13) Faking the Code (Jedi) [Approaching Death Star in Tydirium]
14) Brother and Sister (Jedi) [film version of Luke and Leia--Luke tells Leia
they're siblings, etc.]
15) Standing By (SW) [The X-wings and Y-wings take off from the Rebel base]
16) Leia Is Wounded/Luke and Vader Duel (Jedi) [Leia shot at shield bunker,
on Death Star, Luke backflips up to catwalk]
17) Carbon Freeze/Luke Pursues the Captives/Departure of Boba Fett (Empire)
[Continuous 11 minutes of Bespin battle music]
18) Losing a Hand (Empire) [Luke gets hand cut off, hangs off weather vane]
19) The Return of the Jedi (Jedi, alternate version) [completely different
version of the sail barge battle]
20) Leia Breaks the News/Funeral Pyre for a Jedi (Jedi) [alternate version--
in latter case, the film version, of the track "Rebel Briefing" on old
Jedi album]
21) Ewok Celebration (film version) and Empire end credits (film version)
All music on disc four previously unreleased except Cantina Band, Lapti Nek,
and Departure of Boba Fett

 

Okay, I won't try to fool you die-hards. There is still music in the movies
not on this box set. However, Fox is considering doing a fifth disc, which
will take care of that. Fox may or may not release it next year, depending
on how well this box sells. There are naturally going to be people who say,
"Yeah, I liked those five hours of Star Wars music, but you bastards left
off my favorite one minute cue when Chewie puts Threepio back together!"
For those people, all I can say is you'll have it eventually. This box set
will rectify 16 years of screwed-up albums (the infernal Polygram has
nothing to do with it) and will give the Star Wars and movie music fan more
music than anyone could have ever hoped for.

 

The entire SW and Empire soundtracks cannot be put on one CD because
they simply won't fit. While technically a CD can hold up to 79 minutes,
the manufacturer in this case (Arista) has limited each disc to 75 minutes.
The rationale is that with discs of great length, you get more screw-ups in
the pressing run. Arista--which is just manufacturing the CDs, not producing
them--said that they absolutely would not go past 75 minutes. They put it in
writing to the producer at Fox, the fellow I've been dealing with, that if
he delivered CDs longer than 75 minutes and there were screw-ups in the
pressing run, they could hold him legally accountable.

 

In the case of Star Wars, we are using the film mix, instead of the album
mix. Basically, when they record a film score, it goes on a multi-track
master. You've got some instruments on one channel, others on another
channel, etc. For SW, there was a mix made for the film which is very crisp
and in-your-face. For the album, a softer, mushier mix was made in order to
disguise the occasional wrong note, not that you or I will be able to
notice any such flubs. The album mix was used on the previous album and CD,
but we'll be using the film mix, and it really reveals the score anew.
In a few cases, different takes have been used so that it sounds a little bit
different.

 

Empire has been altered more, specifically because Polygram was unable
to supply the album masters, so the CD (disc two) had to be reconstructed
from the aging session masters. For Empire, a variety of tape sources has
been used. To make a long story short, some of the tracks are taken off of
the film mix, some were mixed down from the multi-tracks in an all new mix,
and one track, Yoda's Theme, was actually lifted from the old CD. Trust me,
you won't be able to tell the difference.

 

On the original Empire album, the first track combined the main title and
Luke getting whacked off his Tauntaun with the "This Is No Cave" music from
later in the picture. Here, we have restored some four minutes of music--
in lieu of the cave music--originally intended for the opening of the
movie. Said music was re-recorded on the first track of the Varese
re-recording. The cave music will appear on the possible fifth disc.

My producer contact at Fox isn't too happy about this either. Here's what
happened: Because of the way we had to assemble the discs one at a time,
disc four was done assuming the cave music would go on disc two, because
disc two would be done with the album masters. When the album masters didn't
show up but the session masters did, we decided to include the extended
Imperial Probe cue because it was important and intriguing "missing music"
that also kept to the chronological order Lucasfilm was bugging us about.
No problem, "This Is Not a Cave" would go on disc five. Now, the higher-ups
at Fox have decided to put disc five on hold. There's no way we could have
forseen this. So, yes, there will two and a half minutes of music on the
original Empire CD that may never been re-released. Well, what can we do?

For Jedi, two main sources have been used, the film mix and the old CD.
The following tracks were culled from the old CD as that was the only
available recording, and with digital technology it sounds exactly the
same: Han Solo Returns, The Return of the Jedi, Parade of the Ewoks, Luke
and Leia, The Forest Battle, Ewok Celebration/End Credits, and Lapti Nek.
Of the remaining tracks, Main Title/Approaching the Death Star is ten
seconds longer but it's the same music, just joined at a different spot;
Into the Trap and Rebel Briefing are identical; and The Emperor is the same
music although there's one very faint synthesizer overdub heard on the old
CD that won't be on the new one. However, unlike SW, this is the same mix.
Again, you won't be able to tell the difference.

 

One of the few things that will not be on this box set or the subsequent
fifth disc is the film version of Lapti Nek. We simply have been unable to
find the tapes of it. The album version will be used instead. Sorry about
this, but there's nothing I can do about it.

 

In the strict technical term of "mastering," all four CDs are being
re-mastered and re-equalized for compact disc presentation by one of LA's
finest sound engineers.

 

Here are two main reasons why they've been resequenced:

1) Lucasfilm insisted.
2) The original SW and Empire albums were designed to work each as four sides
totalling one larger whole. You have four independent listening experiences
of 15-20 minutes apiece. With CDs, you have one, 75 minute listening
experience. Because of that, it makes sense to present the tracks in
chronological order to better serve that one long listen.

 

To elaborate, the original 2LP sets to SW and Empire were constructed in no
order whatsoever except as a musical program. As such, cues from different
parts of the movie were joined together in many cases. Because the albums
have been around so long, all but two of those joins or crossfades have
been left as is because it works musically, but this throws a few kinks
into Lucasfilm's demand for chronological order. Basically, disc one is in
mostly chronological order, disc two is in chronological order except for
two instances, and disc three is in entirely chronological order. Disc
four, the bonus outtakes disc, is not in any chrnological order because
it's a collection of extra music, not a direct soundtrack to any one film.

 

Any questions/comments/complaints? Are you not properly overwhelmed with joy?

 

Lukas Kendall
track titles copyright 1993 Lukasfilm Ltd.

[Tallguy 4,417]

5 minutes ago, Jay said:

However, Fox is considering doing a fifth disc, which
will take care of that.

 

Wow. Lukas was in trouble before the set even came out!

  

4 hours ago, JTW said:

For a friendly price of $1499.99 

 

$1977 just for funsies.

 

5 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

I remember seeing to my utter surprise and elation the listing for this in the Movie Boulevard soundtracks mail-order catalogue in 1994.

 

Shortly thereafter I was browsing through some magazines at the local newsagent and I came across an ad in an issue of Premiere magazine. I promptly bought the mag and proceeded to try to scrutinise the tiny print on the photo to make out which tracks were previously unreleased.

 

I still have a clipping of the ad safely stored within my Anthology box, which I of course ordered promptly on hearing of its release. What a fantastic set this was at the time, and virtually unprecedented if I recall correctly.

 

Now I'm wondering if it was in Premier. I'm not sure I was still reading the Lucasfilm magazine (I'm not sure I wasn't, either) but I was an avid reader of Premier.

 

Any chance I could trouble you for a scan?

 

19 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

No, it wasn't! I learned about the existence of this set through the internet! It was before websites and forums, but it was not before Usenet!

 

I found my way on to usenet a year or two later and people were still talking about this set and the mythical Disc Five. (Edit: See above.) That was when I realized that this set was anticipated, much as some of the bigger collectors sets are now. I can't help but think that (for me) part of the mind melting magic and why I remember that day was that it came completely out of nowhere. Zero anticipation. Kablam! Literally less than 30 minutes from discovery to having it in my hands.

 

9 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

When I got my hands on the set, I was never so excited to see an asterisk, or two, next to a cue name...

 

*previously unreleased

**contains previously unreleased material

 

Y'know, those sort of notes are just part of our lives now. But had you ever seen such a thing before? I don't think I had.

 

I might also note that this was a kind of culmination of sorts: The letterbox VHS set had come out in 1992. Good Heavens! Did I get this the same Christmas as the Definitive Collection laser discs?!? Funny how precisely (ish) I remember these CDs but I'm not remembering when I got the LDs all that well.

[Davis 2,895]

15 minutes ago, Jay said:

I would have learned about this by reading this post by @Lukas Kendall in rec.arts.sf.starwars in 1993:

Nice. I wasn't so lucky to have internet in 1993. Most of us weren't back then, for that matter.

[aj_vader 568]

This is amazing reading everyone's wholesome stories around this boxset. 

 

I was 6 years old when I got this set in 1993, I had to wait until I got enough money from Family Christmas cards to be able to buy it from HMV. I vividly remember going home on the bus after getting it and I was physically shaking with excitement and anticipation on the journey home, which would have only been around an hour at the most, but felt like an eternity, especially at that age.

 

I think it's still the most excited I've ever been with a soundtrack release, the special editions were close but just didn't have the same kind of energy for some reason. I didn't even have all the OST's before I had the anthology, I never found them in record stores. The only Star Wars music I had before the anthology was Varèse Sarabande's Star Wars Trilogy released in 1990.

 

When I got home I remember putting in disc two first and skipping to all the statements of the Imperial March 😂. At that point I hadn't heard the OST's at all and only had the original versions of the films on VHS. So when it got the end of the Magic Tree and Yoda and The Force those huge Imperial March statements blew my head off! (For clarification the original film version just tracked the ostinato from the film take recording of the Imperial Fleet, clunky edit as well). 

 

Oh the magic 🙏 it was so special. 

[Tallguy 4,417]

14 minutes ago, aj_vader said:

This is amazing reading everyone's wholesome stories around this boxset. 

 

I was 6 years old when I got this set in 1993, I had to wait until I got enough money from Family Christmas cards to be able to buy it from HMV. I vividly remember going home on the bus after getting it and I was physically shaking with excitement and anticipation on the journey home, which would have only been around an hour at the most, but felt like an eternity, especially at that age.

 

I think it's still the most excited I've ever been with a soundtrack release, the special editions were close but just didn't have the same kind of energy for some reason. I didn't even have all the OST's before I had the anthology, I never found them in record stores. The only Star Wars music I had before the anthology was Varèse Sarabande's Star Wars Trilogy released in 1990.

 

When I got home I remember putting in disc two first and skipping to all the statements of the Imperial March 😂. At that point I hadn't heard the OST's at all and only had the original versions of the films on VHS. So when it got the end of the Magic Tree and Yoda and The Force those huge Imperial March statements blew my head off! (For clarification the original film version just tracked the ostinato from the film take recording of the Imperial Fleet, clunky edit as well). 

 

Oh the magic 🙏 it was so special. 

 

This fascinates me. For one thing I was 8 when I got the original double LP. And although it grew on me (because it was Star Wars) I didn't have anticipation for it. Your story is ground zero nerd love. Wow.

 

In the coming years before the SE sets this (rather pricey) box was the only way to get the Trilogy music. (Was that really only a four year gap? Astounding!) I remember working in a music store in 1994 and there was a kid who wanted Star Wars music. Being rather socially tone-deaf and also a zealot it never occurred to me to offer the Skywalker Symphony or another re-recording that was more in line with what the kid's Mom was willing to spend. I mean your grade school child likes Star Wars, why WOULDN'T you buy him an expensive, elaborate box set for music that he THINKS he might like? Yes, sometimes I was a cautionary tale.

[1977 1,746]

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

Now I'm wondering if it was in Premier. 

 

Any chance I could trouble you for a scan?

 

I'm 100% sure it was.

 

I don't have a scanner at home and need to dig my set out, but I'll see if I can post a photo.

[Tallguy 4,417]

1 minute ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

I'm 100% sure it was.

 

I don't have a scanner at home and need to dig my set out, but I'll seemif I can post a photo.

 

I say "scan" to mean "picture on the internet". Photo would be outstanding. Thank you!

[Jay 39,429]

Here's Lukas' own remembrances of the box set, from his blog

 

https://www.lukaskendall.com/post/the-star-wars-4cd-anthology

[Badzeee 112]

13 hours ago, Tallguy said:

There are a lot of nerdy things that I can go on about at length. This is certainly one of them.

 

I don't remember what the magazine was where I saw an ad for this box. Starlog? The Star Wars fan club? It was NOT a prominent ad. But... What the hell was this? The description was... Vague? I wish I still had a copy of it. There had to be something that made me drop everything I was doing (probably not much) and drive to the music store. ( @Yavar Moradi do you remember Hastings in Prescott?) And they had it. I remember my jaw dropping and staying there when I read the contents. Final Duel. Everything from the 2 LP Empire. The second Cantina song.

 

It's still the prettiest collection I own, IMHO. The Blue Box and the Star Trek TOS box come close. I think it's the larger format book that puts it over the top. The notes are wonderful. And you can't go wrong with Star Wars OT pictures and art. I still love the black disc covers with the nearly black logos on them. And the three discs with McQuarrie art and the fourth with Williams. It's sitting to my immediate right, next to the Blue Box.

 

I know we have a bunch of old timers like me around here. You understand. You probably have your own memories about this box. Do share!

 

For you youngsters: You have no idea. Not just in terms of Star Wars, but even in terms of expansions like this just weren't done back then. This might not have been the first but it had to have been close. We kind of take it for granted that if we just hold out long enough that eventually one of the THREE or FOUR specialty labels will crack the arrangements and we'll get Star Trek, or Harry Potter, or even something like Lord of the Rings that comes out expanded / complete almost out of the gate.

 

I love the SE disks. And I still listen to the original LP programs regularly. But I can't think of any soundtrack release (yes, even including the Star Trek discs) that had the emotional high that this box did. It still kind of does!

 

Thirty years. Amazing. A long time ago....

 

This is the kind of post I came here to read. Thank you, Tallguy. 

 

I bought this at the Virgin Megastore in either Kingston-upon-Thames or Oxford Street in London, I forget which. It was really the purchase that reignited my childhood love of soundtracks - mostly Williams and John Barry - that I'd sort of abandoned in my teens. (Not out of any sort of dislike; just pursuing different tastes and exploring different avenues.) 

Just to have some extra "bits" that had been missing off earlier releases was mind-blowing. Tracks like The Fleet Goes Into Hyperspace, Destruction of Alderaan, Funeral Pyre For a Jedi (Film Version) etc. None of it was in the "right order." None of that mattered. The thrill was total. The packaging was sublime. It was special.

 

Still is, and yes, I still possess the very same set and I still love it. 

[aj_vader 568]

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

 

This fascinates me. For one thing I was 8 when I got the original double LP. And although it grew on me (because it was Star Wars) I didn't have anticipation for it. Your story is ground zero nerd love. Wow.

 

In the coming years before the SE sets this (rather pricey) box was the only way to get the Trilogy music. (Was that really only a four year gap? Astounding!) I remember working in a music store in 1994 and there was a kid who wanted Star Wars music. Being rather socially tone-deaf and also a zealot it never occurred to me to offer the Skywalker Symphony or another re-recording that was more in line with what the kid's Mom was willing to spend. I mean your grade school child likes Star Wars, why WOULDN'T you buy him an expensive, elaborate box set for music that he THINKS he might like? Yes, sometimes I was a cautionary tale.

"Your story is ground zero nerd love." 

 

Yeah I think the anthology boxset was £99.99 in HMV. It took me a while to save up for the special edition sets as well, however they seemed to be more mainstream and appeared in far more stores than the anthology set did. I didn't have the internet at that point, stumbling on releases was really my only way of finding these things out, we had the internet at school but it had filters for anything that wasn't related to the lessons. When I stumbled on the Empire SE set in HMV it was in one of those empty cases with a blue card saying Empire Strikes Back Special Edition blah blah ask at the counter. I asked to see it and I remember my eye's widening at the track list for Disc One Track 4, "Aboard The Executor", I thought this is it! the film version of the march at last! Nope! . I begged my Mother to buy it but it was £49.99! I had no chance. That was the leather non plastic version. 

[BrotherSound 2,295]

This was only the second CD release I’d ever owned (after Jurassic Park earlier the same year). Disc Three remains my favorite presentation of Return of the Jedi, both for the sound quality and sequencing. It’s essentially the double LP that never was.

 

Also: kudos to whomever did the mockup of a nine-film Star Wars soundtrack collection boxset, which nodded to the black-on-black look of this set.

[ricsim88 256]

I bought this set in the fall of 1994, at the Tower records store downtown NY while on tour with the Montreal Symphony. It was a total surprise as I wasn’t following anything soundtrack related at the time. I couldn’t wait for the tour to be over so I could go home and listen to it.

I love this set.

[Thor 8,353]

It's funny to read all these reactions to the extra stuff on Disc 4. For me, that wasn't even on my mind. I was enthralled by the look of the box, the booklet (despite failing glue), the artwork, the black covers, the fact that I owned music from all three STAR WARS films (this was when the prequels were barely even a rumour). I did notice the fourth disc, of course, but had more a reaction like "hmm, what a weird curiousity thing". I think I played that disc once or twice immediately after I got the box, mostly for the source music and the "ewok celebration" end piece, but then never again since.

[1977 1,746]

It's pity that 1. Polygram never provided the album masters to the producers and 2. certain cues had to be taken from film stems (the rebel escape from Hoth).

[aj_vader 568]

49 minutes ago, BrotherSound said:

Also: kudos to whomever did the mockup of a nine-film Star Wars soundtrack collection boxset, which nodded to the black-on-black look of this set.

*blushes* 

 

[Tallguy 4,417]

49 minutes ago, Thor said:

I think I played that disc once or twice immediately after I got the box, mostly for the source music and the "ewok celebration" end piece, but then never again since.

 

Now that's just silly. Never mind The Destruction of Alderaan. Or Standing By. Or the film version of Funeral Pyre for a Jedi. Or even Drawing the Battle Lines / Leia's Instructions. (The titles are so much better than the "standard" ones we have now.)

 

Disc 4 has Carbon Freeze / Luke Pursues The Captives/ Departure Of Boba Fett!

 

(I just realized that TIE Fighter, Boba Fett, and Ewok are all named on the albums despite never being named in the films! )

[Edmilson 8,920]

16 minutes ago, aj_vader said:

*blushes* 

 

By the time this set is being released we'll be on Star Wars: Episode XVIII, composed and conducted by the biologically engineered John Williams clone, who retains all of his memories and musical knowledge in the body of when he was 35.

[Tallguy 4,417]

1 minute ago, Edmilson said:

By the time this set is being released we'll be on Star Wars: Episode XVIII, composed and conducted by the biologically engineered John Williams clone, who retains all of his memories and musical knowledge in the body of when he was 35.

 

No more Foundation for you!

[Davis 2,895]

40 minutes ago, aj_vader said:

*blushes* 

 

Jim Titus called, he wants to "steal" your design.  

 

 

22 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

By the time this set is being released we'll be on Star Wars: Episode XVIII, composed and conducted by the biologically engineered John Williams clone

Are you kidding? He will be alive and well, looking better than ever.

[1977 1,746]

@Tallguy and anyone else who cares, here you go: